Pandora Audio/music Sequencer/mixer?

[Viral18]

Sorry if this has already come up at all over the last few years, but are any devs looking into porting/making any audio sequencers for the pandora?

I preordered mine primarily as an emulation system as well as a portable media player/internet browser, but am also fairly interested in what else can be achieved with the specs (considering the system requirements of 90's cubase and propellerhead software, pandora could handle it, though obviously those weren't open source).

Another thing I thought would be interesting in the music tech possiblities would be using the pandora as a bluetooth MIDI controller, or having synthesizers emulated for pandora (kinda like they did with the nintendo DS korg I guess).

 

[gruso]

Whenever this comes up, I link to "the post":

http://www.gp32x.de...post__p__762440

I should point out that Torpor is under no obligation to follow through on all that. He'll do what we can as he gets the time. But there'll be other people doing similar stuff too.

 

[Viral18]

Ah, excellent thankyou, my apologies for having missed that one.

Overall this forums made me want 2 things, 1. the Pandora, and 2. to learn how to develop my own stuff

 

[torpor]

Don't worry, I'm hacking away on this right now .. got lots of things to release once I've had a chance to test them out on a real Pandora .. sequencer, small synths, some other music tools and so on. Definitely waiting with baited breath for my Pandora to arrive so I can get cracking on this issue - and in the meantime, doing what I can on Touchbook/Beagleboard to ensure things are ready ..

The only real issue for me right now is whether we're going to get USB-MIDI support (class drivers) in the first release of the PandoraOS, but I'll be addressing this with DJWillis as soon as I've had a chance to catch him in IRC.

 

[Pleng]

The more time goes on the more the Pandora reminds me of the Amiga.

It's seen primarily as a games machine yet capable of so much more. But when you tell people (for instance in comments on news articles) about what else it can do, most people just don't get it!

The Amiga had an awesome tracker music scene and the Pandora could be an excellent little sequencer, tracker, and multi-track recording workstation all rolled into one. And when one gets bored of (or too lazy to do any more) music making they can load up Superfrog and waste some time.

The only difference is, one can do all this on the bus!*

If only Roland's VG-99 Editor was open source...

*lugging a guitar, multi fx and power source on to a bus is another matter - perhaps best keep to tracking and mixing whilst on public transport!

 

[Loon]

Don't worry, I'm hacking away on this right now .. got lots of things to release once I've had a chance to test them out on a real Pandora .. sequencer, small synths, some other music tools and so on. Definitely waiting with baited breath for my Pandora to arrive so I can get cracking on this issue - and in the meantime, doing what I can on Touchbook/Beagleboard to ensure things are ready ..

Good news, this is the sort of thing that will make the Pandora great. Give this man a Pandora ASAP say I.

@ Torpor, If you could keep us posted of progress on the Beagleboard that would be much appreciated, it should help make the wait for Pandora even more unbearable! :rolleyes:

 

[Pleng]

+1 for torpor being given one of the next batch of dev units (I gather when the next case samples come there will be more units built and going to developers - I could be wrong!)

A few well put together bits of software from torpor could open up a totally new market for the Pandora. Send a review unit with some or torpors ports to Sound on Sound and you could be selling thousands more Pandoras - a portable DAW not much more expensive than competing solutions but with a full colour LCD TOUCH screen, removable storage up to 64Gb, full keyboard and analouge controls. PLUS it can browse the internet and play games when you're not making music? All for almost HALF the cost of a Boss BR-900. That gives you enough change to buy one or two of Korg's nano controllers and STILL have enough cash left over for some SD cards and a couple of pints! Plus your solution, even with the extra hardware, would be smaller (though less self contained) than all but the smallest of portable DAWs!

Sadly I have a feeling that the development team aren't terribly interested in the audio software side of things. There certainly hasn't been any kind of buzz from the development team about audio software in any of the threads on the topic.

Though maybe they just haven't read any of the topics so haven't had a chance to feel the vibe, and I'm reading too much into that.

 

[renegadechic]

Sadly I have a feeling that the development team aren't terribly interested in the audio software side of things. There certainly hasn't been any kind of buzz from the development team about audio software in any of the threads on the topic.

Though maybe they just haven't read any of the topics so haven't had a chance to feel the vibe, and I'm reading too much into that.

i agree we haven't heard much from them on it, but i think as soon as batch 1 comes out and the software has had a chance to be proven it will be pretty crucial for batches 2 and 3 (and maybe 4). really until the first 4000 orders are fulfilled, that is all they need to concentrate on. its not worth thinking forward without getting to a stage where that could potentially happen. i think of it more as like phase two of the plan

not to say that interest cant be drummed up already if torpor gets sent one of these units, though i would be a little tentative bringing all the hype in now when batch two is unlikely to surface for another 6 months. we dont want the interest to drop off in the interim. once the first batch it out, any marketting and timing can be far better managed than its been able to have been up to now

 

[torpor]

Since I placed one of the first pre-orders for the Pandora in the very beginning, I have been assured that I am at least in the first 20 Pandora orders to be fulfilled, even if I'm not in the special "dev list" .. I should be getting my order fulfilled (I ordered 2 Pandoras) pretty much as soon as they're shipped, it looks like ..

It will be my priority to release my sequencer, a minisynth, and get the port of PureData done as soon as I have a working Pandora and can participate in the OS build process. One thing we have to be aware of is that the PandoraOS may not be so great for Audio applications at v1.0-factory release .. there is much tweaking that can be done to make PandoraOS/Linux very Music-app friendly, such as Realtime capabilities, MIDI onboard, audio Drivers, etc.

And you're right, Pleng, about the sellability of the Pandora once its got some music apps in it .. I think it will make a huge splash with the SoS crowd once the apps are out there and proven. I worked for years in the pro-audio realm and having a small system like the Pandora has been a dream for me .. It will become a very useable and useful music tool, I think, pretty darn quickly ..

 

[Pleng]

torpor is it going to be possible to add all the features to the default OS without clashing with other interests? Is it possible that an alternative distro might be needed?

I'm so excited about this. I sold my Zoom MRS to help pay for my Pandora.

 

[torpor]

Its quite possible to have a Realtime kernel that works well for games too, and the Sound/USB-MIDI/USB-Audio support can probably be included, non-intrusively, without effecting things too much .. but like I said, this is something to be discussed with DJWillis, and he's a bit busy these days, but I'll keep trying ..

 

[renegadechic]

i think even if it can be in the default OS it would be more like a dual booting image kinda thing. i doubt it could really work like a layer or window manager. it would be awesome to be able to select what you want like choosing between pmenu and the full OS but with the music functions as another option. im so excited, it might actually reignite some creativity in me! i wouldnt be surprised if we could use it similarly to the zoom drum machines too. with the keypad as triggers it could be pretty good

 

[Pleng]

Re OS:
Well I think it would be nice to have an 'audio tools' PND that features the best of torpor's work in a nice interface or menu system (maybe a matchbox interface, as I gather it's tabbed rather than window based), that could then be launched directly from PMEnu.

Re Drum Machine:
Yup, though I'm going to try and get into tracking my drums. I do quite well with drum machines but never got on with tracking. Yet I love some of the sounds to come out of trackers. So I can put my time wasted on the trains and buses (and planes) to good use by FORCING myself to get into tracking...(and playing Virtua Racing Deluxe, of course! )

 

[torpor]

What I wanna do is make music apps just for the Pandora .. making it an exclusive machine, indeed, for music-makers ..

 

[dschroeter]

torpor, is it difficult to drop a screenshot of the sequencer or synth? I'd love to see how this fits on 800x480; I'm dreaming of playing the keyboard keys as midi and using the nubs as realtime x-y effect pads ... so wonderful in my head

 

[mindlord]

torpor, is it difficult to drop a screenshot of the sequencer or synth? I'd love to see how this fits on 800x480; I'm dreaming of playing the keyboard keys as midi and using the nubs as realtime x-y effect pads ... so wonderful in my head

This would be nice, except for 1 minor detail. The keyboard only accepts 2 simultaneous keypresses.

 

[Pleng]

That's fine for melodies. A computer keyboard doesn't really afford chord-playing anyway.

 

[TheRain]

I'm planning a unique audio sequencer for the pandora as well. Will be more in the vein of a x0x, with a focus on algorithmic and realtime tweaking, rather than a "lay down tracks" type sequencer. Will also have a focus on audio manipulation and glitch (grain etc) rather than classic synthesis methods. This will be sort of like dSTAR sequencer I created for the Nintendo DS a few years back. Also I'll be porting DSMI http://code.google.com/p/dsmi/ which I originally created for the Nintendo DS along with 0xTob (creator of Nitro Tracker).

 

[cobaltage]

I'm planning a unique audio sequencer for the pandora as well. Will be more in the vein of a x0x, with a focus on algorithmic and realtime tweaking, rather than a "lay down tracks" type sequencer. Will also have a focus on audio manipulation and glitch (grain etc) rather than classic synthesis methods. This will be sort of like dSTAR sequencer I created for the Nintendo DS a few years back. Also I'll be porting DSMI http://code.google.com/p/dsmi/ which I originally created for the Nintendo DS along with 0xTob (creator of Nitro Tracker).

That sounds like a great project. I'm also excited to see both MIDI and OSC wifi communication with DSMI.

 

[torpor]

DSMI is nice for NintendoDS, but its really *not* necessary in PandoraOS since we can use WLAN and MIDI together much easier in Linux.

The problem with DSMI is its a proprietary "NIH" style API that app developers have to explicitly include in their projects, as opposed to just opening a MIDI port through standard ALSA calls, and therefore having nothing to do with the WIFI/MIDI setup/teardown. A far better approach is to just have the MIDI manager in the OS deal with WIFI/USB/Serial devices, and not expose *any* of that stuff to an app, which is opening a port and treating it like a MIDI port, just as always. We can do this with ALSA and MidiShare as well (actually MidiShare is pretty darn nice for other things too..)

libOSC over Wifi is also a bit "NIH"'ish, but it is getting some interest from the softsynth world, so there is at least a reasoning behind getting this onboard, plus its simple and cheap in terms of an API/Lib to use.

That said, if DSMI can be used to sync a Pandora up with Nitrotracker, I'm all for it! I just wouldn't want to see it become a standard ..


Pandora Keypad: it will be good for a user interface, but I've already got the Korg Nano-controllers rigged up to my Touchbook/Beagleboard environment, so I'm not too fussed about the multi-keypress limitations .. surely it'll be sufficient to use the keyboard for interface-related stuff, track mutes/selection/etc.

Screenshots: Soon, soon!